RCC Subtypes Affect Post-Surgery Cancer-Related Mortality Risk

Cancer-specific mortality among patients who undergo surgery for
non-metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) vary according to histologic subtypes
of the malignancy, new findings suggest.

Compared with clear cell RCC, papillary RCC is associated with a
significant 24% reduced risk of cancer-specific mortality, and papillary RCC
type 1 is associated with a significant 69% decreased risk of death,
investigators reported online in PLoS One. The investigators found no
difference in cancer-specific mortality between papillary RCC type 2 and clear
cell RCC.

As a result of the study's findings, the authors concluded there is an
urgent need to consider histopathologic entities and their subtypes when
deciding on follow-up or targeted therapy for RCC patients.

The study, by Nina Wagener, MD, of Mannheim Medical Center in Mannheim,
Germany, and colleagues, included 7543 European and North American patients who
underwent radical or partial nephrectomy for RCC. The group included 1943
patients with papillary RCC and 5600 with clear cell RCC. The median follow-up
was 64.6 months.